R290 and R454B: where they actually are in the market

Why hasn't R290 turned up in splits?

Because the hold-up isn't the refrigerant rules. Home air conditioners that use a properly flammable refrigerant like propane have to get electrical safety certification under the Electrical Equipment Safety Scheme. That's a much tougher path than ordinary appliances face, and Victoria's signed up to the scheme.

So the registrations sit where that certification is achievable. 440 of the 459 R290 air conditioning registrations are portables. Two are single splits. If you've been told propane splits are just around the corner here, the registry doesn't back it up.

Is R454B actually arriving?

Yes, but only just. Thirteen registrations so far, and twelve of them are GENERAL (formerly Fujitsu) ducted and packaged units. That's one manufacturer bringing in a range, not the whole market switching over. Still, it shows where things are heading, so keep an eye on it.

One caution about its safety class. R454B is commonly classed A2L, the mildly flammable class R32 is in, and our other refrigerant pages treat it that way. But we couldn't confirm that class from an Australian primary source. Check the manufacturer's safety data sheet before you rely on it.

Is there a gram limit for flammable refrigerant?

You'll find plenty of pages quoting one gram figure as the legal charge limit for flammable refrigerant. We won't, because we couldn't verify one in Australian law. The Australian standards are paywalled, so we couldn't read their formulas, tables or clauses for ourselves.

Our pages on the refrigerant safety classes and on the A2L minimum room area method do work some figures out, including where the well-known 150 gram figure comes from. Those are our own sums from the international formula, and they're marked as computed. They're there to help you understand the manual, not to stand in for it.

Here's what is verified, and what you're actually held to on site. The room has to be bigger than the minimum room size in the manufacturer's manual, or the one you work out using the method in the standard. The manufacturer has already done the sum, and the minimum floor area in the manual is the legal requirement.

So don't take a single gram figure off any website, ours included, as the law. And don't use the old rule of thumb about a percentage of room volume. Get it from the manual for the unit you're putting in.